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Communist/Socialist Ideologies and Independence Movements in Africa

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International Journal of Humanities, Art and Social Studies (IJHAS), Vol. 4, No.4, November 2019 COMMUNIST/SOCIALIST IDEOLOGIES AND INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENTS IN AFRICA Richard Adewale Elewomawu Department of History, Kogi State College of Education, Ankpa, Kogi State. Nigeria ABSTRACT It is almost impossible to separate communist/socialist ideologies from African independence movement. But Africa has been marginalised in the extant literature of communism and socialism. This accounts for the very limited study that has been done as regards the relationship between the liberation movement of African and communist/socialist ideologies. This paper did a thorough study of all the independence movements of Africa and realised that communism and socialism were unifying weapons of these liberation movements in their quest for the eradication of colonialism. Most of these African countries such as South Africa, Algeria, Tunisia, Madagascar etc had formidable Communist Parties, which took up arms to fight against the colonialists to gain independence. This paper has been able to bridge the research gap of the role of communist/socialist ideologies in the attainment of independence in most African countries. KEYWORDS Africa, Independence Movement, Communism, Socialism 1. INTRODUCTION In the discussion of communist and socialist ideologies, Africa seems to be ostracized. The spread of these ideologies and the roles they played in the world are usually discussed with little or no reference to Africa. The literature on communism and socialism do not give preference to African continent. However, the role of communist and socialist dialogue in the liberation movement of African countries cannot be overemphasized. This study finds out that these ideologies served as unifying factors and motivators for some of the major independence movements on the continent. Some of these movements enjoyed grants and aids from the major communist/socialist countries to enhance their enlightenment and pursuit of liberation from colonialism. This research covers the entire African continent. However, it did a thorough study on four countries where communism/socialism were most influential in their liberation movements. They are South Africa, Algeria, Nigeria and Tunisia. Other countries such as Kenya, Morocco, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Reunion and Madagascar where communism/socialism played minor roles were also studied. This study shared more light on the importance of communist/socialist ideology on the road to attaining independence by some African countries. 2. SOCIALIST AND COMMUNIST IDEOLOGIES Socialism and communism are two of the most ambiguous and controversial terms because of their usage and interpretations. The point of departure in the discussion of socialism and communism is “the communist manifesto” by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (1888). Although these ideologies existed before this piece was published in 1888, it provides the earliest major write-up in the interpretation of the ideologies. 11 International Journal of Humanities, Art and Social Studies (IJHAS), Vol. 4, No.4, November 2019 Communism is a process which comprises of two stages. The first stage is regarded as socialism. Socialism is a political transition period where the proletariat overthrows the bourgeois in what Marx referred to as the “dictatorship of the proletariat” or the “bourgeois revolution” (Marx and Engels, 1888). This stage is the lower stage of the transition from the state to stateless society. At this stage, state controls all the modes of production and the proletariat or working class becomes the ruling class. This revolutionary transformation period ensures that all the instruments of production are centralised in the hands of the state while the rights and privileges of the bourgeois disappears. It is an imperfect period because inequality still exists. Each receives recording of his/her efforts. That is, each member of the society will receive needs according to the quality and quantity of work performed. Injustice and inequality are massively reduced compared to capitalism. The last stage where there will be the attainment of a perfect classless society is communism proper. This is the stage of “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” (Marx and Engels, 1888). At this stage, all forms of inequality disappears. Karl Marx calls this stage the "workers’ revolution". "A society without private property, class division, or an extensive division of labour” (Marx and Engels, 1888). That is, total abolition of private property. 3. SOCIALIST/COMMUNIST IDEOLOGY AND GLOBAL LIBERATION MOVEMENT Communism as opined by Karl Marx has always presented a correlation between communism and national liberation. Lenin described imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism. Marx who condemned capitalism observed that the slave trade, colonialism and the naked exploitation of Africa and Asia by the Western world were the foundations of capitalism. Marx asserted that “the discovery of gold and silver in America, the extirpation, enslavement and entombment in mines of the aboriginal population, the beginning of the conquest of the East Indies, the turning of Africa into a warren for the commercial hunting of black-skins, signalised the rosy dawn of the era capitalist production...the treasures captured outside of Europe by undisguised looting, enslavement and murder, floated back to the mother country and were there turned into capital” (Marx, 1867). By the end of the Second World War, “Marxism had… become the vehicle for radical nationalism in non-industrial societies” (White, 1983) like Africa. The relationship between communism and national liberation was first expressed by Marx and Engels with their enthusiastic support for the national liberation movement of the Irish people against Great Britain. Marx encouraged the British people to support the demands of Irish people because the working class of Britain would “never accomplished anything” until Ireland gained independence. Marx’s anti-imperialist writings permitted India in the 1950s, which is believed to have inspired the 1857 Indian war of independence and the formation of the Indian National Congress. His writings also predicted the independence of China from imperialist Europe claiming that they would discover written bodily on the Great Wall of China, "Republic of China: liberty, equality, fraternity” (Palme Dutt). His prediction was manifested with the victory of the Chinese people’s revolution led by the Chinese Communist Party. 4. IMPORTANCE OF THE OCTOBER REVOLUTIONS TO LIBERATION MOVEMENT One of the most significant events that happened in the twenty first century was the October revolution of 1917 in Russia where the ordinary people overthrew the aristocrats and established a government led by the working class people. It was significant in the sense that it offered a new path to governance by creating a people-centred government as opposed to a capital centred- 12 International Journal of Humanities, Art and Social Studies (IJHAS), Vol. 4, No.4, November 2019 government. It also polarised the world into two blocs, that is, capitalist countries led by USA and communist countries led by Soviet Union culminating in the Cold War between 1950 and 1990. The event also led to USSR becoming the 'champion' of anti-imperialism especially in Africa. The communist bloc began to interpret oppressed people all over the world including African under colonialism as part of the working class that needs to be liberated. Vladimir Lenin called for an alliance between the revolutionary movement of the working class in the advanced countries and the anti-colonial movements and oppressed people in the colonies, including Africa, to undermine and destroy the imperialist system of states, pointing out that this system could be breached at its weakest link'. To actualise this in due course, twenty one salient prerequisites were enacted for admission into the comintern. And one of such conditions are “that a communist party in a country possessing colonies, such as Britain, must demand an end to coloured rule, support every anti-colonial movements in words and deeds and cultivate a truly fraternal relationship between the workers and those in the colonies” (roape, 2017). At the second comintern congress in 1920 at Baku (in present Azerbaijan) Lenin’s “Draft thesis on the National and Colonial Question” suggested that liberation movement should be provided with liberation movement should be provided with Aids and support. Therefore, for the first time, communists worldover began to see the ‘Negroe question’ and Anti-colonialist as struggles of the oppressed globally, and the need to organize them, and just as important as the struggles of the working class in few economically developed countries. The fourth Communist International (comintern) congress in 1922 “described black as a nationality oppressed by worldwide imperialist structure and who must be liberated through the extension of communism into these territories/colonies”(Petersson, 2017) Black masses were seen to be experiencing alienation both as members of the dispossessed class and of an oppressed race. League Against Imperialism (LAI) and International of Seamen and Harbour Workers (ISHW) were set up by comintern. LAI was the comintern’s front organization and an important and major conduit pipe for the dissemination of leftwing ideas to colonial subjects of varied ideological leanings. LAI connected the colonials with Marxist-Leninism & leftwing
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